Tyler and Hannah in Thailand: February Update

I always have a hard time deciding what I should put in my updates. I know some of my readers enjoy hearing about the various projects I am working on; I know many of you enjoy looking at the pictures I post, or hearing about the latest travels; and I know the importance of keeping my family, and supporters up to date. But I am still never sure what I should focus on, daily life does not change much and I often forget my camera.

I mean, I have been in Thailand for a little over 8 months, and for the most part my life is following a very similar pattern: students take classes, I drive the students to various events/help out with various ministries, and I spend my afternoons teaching young children English. Aside from the trip out of country every few months not much changes in our daily lives. Truly, life as a missionary is not that much different than life for those who stay home...well aside from having to navigate a whole new culture and language. Sure there are times things are more challenging (like trying to find things in a store), and times when things are more adventurous (like getting to travel into the jungles to preach the gospel), and there are even a few times when life is more glamorous (Thailand has some amazing beaches). But daily life is still daily life, a missionary still has to get up and do a job each and everyday, and often times it will be a similar job to what you did back home.

Life as a missionary has very similar challenges to life back home, but it also has many new challenges too: unfavorable living conditions, language and cultural difficulties, lack of finances and resources, having to rely on God and the generosity of others to be able to do what you want to do, and being separated from your family and support network—to list a few. These can be pretty big challenges, but for those who are called to the life of a missionary they also come with amazing rewards.

Please understand, I am not saying that I am better than you because I am a missionary. I believe each person has a calling, a place, and we can only be fulfilled when we are in our place. My place is here on the mission field, it is where I fit and work best, your place maybe something different, hopefully it is where you are right now. If I were to try and fit in your place I would be frustrated and probably fail, just as you would likely not fit in my place.

So in February the VABC students had a class with a mentor of mine from when I attended college in Calgary: Pastor Dan Godard. He came and taught Pastor Theology. It was his first time coming to Thailand. It was very good to see him again.

February we also had our "Ministry Break." Once a semester the students take a two week break from classes and do some practical ministry. This can be anything from taking a trip into the jungle to minister to the hill tribes to going to another city to help out at some of our other churches. This semester most of us stayed in SriRacha to prepare training materials for the pastors as we were going to be hosting a national pastors conference at the end of the two weeks. We also sent our worship team up to the Chiangmai area where they did music workshops at an affiliated bible training centre and ministered in a village near the centre. The students enjoyed the break from their school routines and felt that both events were successful.

In the After School English program we saw attendance grow from 18 children to almost 30. We had to split the class according to skill and age so that it was more manageable and we had to recruit some more help from the VABC students. This ministry is growing and we are getting great feedback from the parents about the program...and the kids must love it because they never want to leave.

We are also getting ready for children's English camp, most of the Thai schools will be having their summer breaks starting in March so we will run an English day camp during the break. It is going to be a very busy few months as we are always filled to capacity for our camps.

One last thing: I am reluctant to bring this up, but I would like to encourage any of my readers who have not signed on as a monthly donor to consider doing so. As you may know the value of the Canadian dollar has slipped a bit in value on the international market: about two months ago $1 CDN would get me ~30 baht, now it gets me about ~25. My donations come in as Canadian Dollars and then are converted into Thai baht, so this loss of value is having a direct result on my funding: let us say I am spending about 3000 Baht a month on rent, $100 dollars used to cover my rent, now it takes $120. So basically all of my expenses have gone up by 20% in the last two months.